Apple’s June 9 filing required a Lodsys response by June 27. Lodsys’s motion seeks to extend that date by two months, to August 27. According to Lodsys’s filing, “[t]his extension is not for purposes of delay.” What’s more, the patent-holding company says that it “conferred with counselor for Apple and Apple does not oppose the relief requested herein.”

Lodsys’s declaration that “Apple does not oppose” the patent holder’s request for an extension may be insignificant—but of course it may not be. Anti-patent advocate Florian Mueller, who first reported on Lodsys’s latest filing, hypothesizes that Lodsys’s request for more time, coupled with Apple’s failure to object, might mean that the companies are negotiating in secret towards some sort of settlement. Both companies, of course, are tight-lipped on the matter; neither responded immediately to Macworld’s request for comment.